Many petroleum crudes with high organic acid content, such as whole crude oils containing naphthenic acids, are corrosive to the equipment used to extract, transport and process the crude, such as pipestills and transfer lines.
Efforts to minimize naphthenic acid corrosion have included a number of approaches. Examples of such technologies include use of oil soluble reaction products of an alkynediol and a polyalkene polyamine (U.S. Pat. No. 4,647,366), and treatment of a liquid hydrocarbon with a dilute aqueous alkaline solution, specifically, dilute aqueous NaOH or KOH (U.S. Pat. No. 4,199,440). U.S. Pat. No. 4,199,440 notes, however, that the use of aqueous NaOH or KOH solutions that contain higher concentrations of the base form emulsions with the oil, necessitating use of only dilute aqueous base solutions. U.S. Pat. No. 4,300,995 discloses the treatment of carbonous materials particularly coal and its products such as heavy oils, vacuum gas oil, and petroleum residua, having acidic functionalities, with a quaternary base such as tetramethylammonium hydroxide in a liquid (alcohol or water). Additional processes using bases such aqueous alkali hydroxide solutions include those disclosed in Kalichevsky and Kobe, Petroleum Refining With Chemicals, (1956) Ch. 4, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,806,437; 3,847,774; 4,033,860; 4,199,440 and 5,011,579. Publications WO 97/08270, WO 97/08271 and WO 97/08275 published Mar. 6, 1997, collectively disclose treatment with overbased detergents and Group IA and IIA oxides and hydroxides to decrease acidity and/or corrosion. Certain treatments have been practiced on mineral oil distillates and hydrocarbon oils (e.g., with lime, molten NaOH or KOH, certain highly porous calcined salts of carboxylic acids suspended on carrier media). Whole crude oils were not treated.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,795,532 and 2,770,580 (Honeycutt) disclose processes in which "heavy mineral oil fractions" and "petroleum vapors", respectively are treated, by contacting "flashed vapors" with "liquid alkaline material" containing, inter alia, alkali metal hydroxides and "liquid oil" using mixture of molten NaOH and KOH as the preferred treating agent, with "other alkaline materials, e.g., lime, also employed in minor amounts." The treatment of whole crudes or fractions boiling at 1050 plus .degree. F. (565.sup.+ .degree. C.) is not disclosed; only vapors and condensed vapors of the 1050 minus .degree. F. (565.sup.- .degree. C.) fractions, that is, fractions that are vaporizable at the conditions disclosed in '532 are treated. Since naphthenic acids are distributed through all crude fractions (many of which are not vaporizable) and since crudes differ widely in naphthenic acid content the '532 patent does not provide an expectation that one would be able to successfully treat a broad slate of crudes of a variety of boiling points or to use bases other than NaOH and KOH.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,068,979 discloses a method for preventing corrosion in a petroleum still by adding calcium naphthenate to petroleum to react with and scavenge strong free acids such as hydrochloric and sulfuric acids to prevent corrosion in distillation units. The patent makes no claims with respect to naphthenic acids, which would have been formed when the strong acids were converted to salts. Patents have disclosed, inter alia, the addition or formation of calcium carbonate (Cheng et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,164,472) or magnesium oxide (Cheng et al, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,163,728 and 4,179,383, and 4,226,739) dispersions as corrosion inhibitors in fuel products and lubricating oil products, but not in whole or topped crude oil. Similarly, Mustafaev et al. (Sb. Tr. Azerb. Inst, Neft. Khim. (1971) 64-6) reported on the improved detergency and anticorrosive properties of calcium, barium, and zinc hydroxide additives in lubricating oils. Calcium hydroxide (Kessick, Canadian Patent 1,249,760) has been used to aid in separation of water from heavy crude oil wastes. U.S. Pat. No. 3,994,344 (Friedman) discloses the use of low molecular weight polyethylenimine to treat crudes. However, the resulting polyamine with acid groups attached is dissolved in the oil.
There is a continuing need to develop methods for reducing the acidity and corrosivity of whole crudes and fractions thereof, particularly residua and other 650.sup.+ .degree. F. (343.sup.+ .degree. C.) fractions. Applicants' invention addresses these needs.